Things and such for posting

[trinityvixen]

I'm collecting a lot of links for posts.

1) Proof positive that outlawing a thing doesn't make it go away. (ETA: TRIGGER WARNING) For fuck's sake, abortion isn't illegal now, and this is what's happening because it's become so goddamned shameful and fucking difficult to obtain for anyone who isn't rich. You tell me what's more offensive to your God, anti-choicers: a woman scraping some insensate cells out of her uterus or a man forcibly delivering viable** fetuses and stabbing them with scissors? Pro-life my goddamned ass.

2) This isn't a totally accurate list, which makes it all the more aggravating when it gets things right. I agree with all the points about emotional attachment to a franchise. Spider-Man isn't James Bond. Hell, he's not Batman. We've had pretty much the one guy. (Okay, Tobey Maguire was the guy and that was an up-and-down relationship, but he's still the guy.) The story still resonates where the films were any good. And the best villains were already used, including, despite how shittily he was used, Venom.

However, the cast wasn't perfect, and the acting was occasionally too embarrassed/embarrassing for its own good. (Dunnnssssssssst!) Raimi did something amazing with Spider-Man, and I'll fight anyone who'll take that credit from him. He overcame hurdles that had banished Spider-Man to development hell for some 20 years. The problem was that Spider-Man, for all the general awareness of him in pop culture, was still kind of an unknown. He's not Superman and he's not Batman, the binary twins of screen superheroism. Once Raimi made Spider-Man, the dam burst and we were able to accept other people's visions of superheroes. (Or, in the case of The Hulk, reject them.) There's no one guy who can do Spider-Man, just one guy who did it well (until the studio meddled and sabotaged him). There's room for more there.

Just, you know, not right now. Sony's not doing this for revenge, by the way. This is purely to keep the rights and make the most of them. Yes, okay, fine, maybe they're spiting Marvel Studios a little. But this is 90% financial interest.

3) Never trust a movie that films today and will be showing tomorrow. If I'd followed that rule for Bachelor Party in the Bungalow of the Damned, I might have that hour back to waste on this movie. Alas, I do not. (No, really, they're filming it now to show in two months. You stay classy, SyFy.)

4) Wow, I didn't know John Cusack had been drinking that much. Kidding! He's still not hang-dog looking enough to play Edgar Allen Poe without a lot of makeup, but I'm sure he'll manage. Hey, today was Poe's birthday and his biggest secret fan didn't show up. Sadness :(

Comments

[ivy03.livejournal.com]

I was wondering why there was a news item about stuff not being on Poe's grave today.

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

Wonder no more! (Quoth the raven.)

[ivy03.livejournal.com]

No, really, they're filming it now to show in two months. You stay classy, SyFy.
Given how awful the last film I watched for GDL was (and how awful he looked in it), I think I'll give this one a miss.

Also, we don't even put out books that fast. If you added something to my May list right now I'd probably kill you.

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

It's based on a video game, no less. I look forward to them butchering it.

[oblvndrgn.livejournal.com]

I know some people at Volition, the studio behind Red Faction. They and THQ, the parent, have been very excited about trying to go increasingly trans-media, the comics and movies and the whatnots to support universes created for games instead of licensing existing properties. Developers and marketing both excited. Unfortunately, I'm pretty sure that somewhere after inception of the idea, someone took a red marker to the budget and said "We're going to release the next game in March. Make sure this airs by then. Or else."

[chuckro.livejournal.com]

So, the explanation for why games based on movies tend to suck works in reverse, as well?

[moonlightalice.livejournal.com]

Um, oh my god. That first article is so unbelievably awful I can't believe you didn't put some kind of warning. I feel sick.

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

Fuck me, I meant to put a trigger warning on that. I'm so sorry, dude.

[wellgull.livejournal.com]

I thought rebooting franchises every six years was S.O.P.

Anyway, I think the reason we didn't have Spider-Man movies before Sam Raimi isn't because of whatever his personal virtues might be, but because the CGI wasn't up to it. You could do Batman with mid-80s special effects, but if the live-action musical is showing us anything, it's that you can't really pull off a Spider-Man movie that didn't look moronic before you could do the whole thing in a Mac. (And honestly, some of the wall-climbing stuff in Spider-Man (I) that we saw the other night was pretty cheesy as is).

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

Development issues pretty much plagued Spider-Man for much of its twenty-year odyssey of not getting made. Yeah, part of that was the CGI. I mean, look at how badly they're getting on with the effects in the stage play. Delays like that in Hollywood would only sink a movie (rather than play out as intriguing tabloid fodder as it has for the musical).

But it also needed one person to put a coherent touch on it--just as Burton did with Batman. Raimi was that someone; he brought the right soft touch to the film, the humor and the failing-to-take-it-as-SRS-SUPERHERO-BZNES that made it work. So I give him full credit for that. It doesn't mean that he's the only one who can spin a story (hur hur) about Spider-Man that's worth telling.

[six-demon-bag.livejournal.com]

Now you’re stunting him, trapping him as the same gawky teenager when all we really want is to know what happens next. Now, for Peter Parker, there is no next

That makes me sad.

Oh SyFy, how I love you so.

Huh, I'm definitely intrigued by this Poe film. I'd never heard of it. Nor had I heard about this secret fan and the broken tradition. That's rather sad.

Thanks for yet another informative entry!

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

I call BS on that quote you pulled out, too. I mean, part of what is most interesting about a lot of the Marvel heroes is how off-guard their powers catch them. Mutants and Spider-Man both come into their powers at puberty, making the story at least as much coming-of-age in narrative as everyman-becomes-Superman. I like Peter Parker the adult, but there's nothing wrong with the teenage superhero. In fact, we tell plenty of adult superhero stories. Change it up a little, why not?

SyFy: We'll keep on making movies as long as you watch them. ADMIT THAT YOU ARE WATCHING THEM. (I confess! I am!)

[slackwench.livejournal.com]

Re #1:
I heard a comment on the radio the other day about the AZ shooting. The point was that all these people halfway calling for armed revolt against politicians they don't like have finally shut up because once you see what that actually entails (just how bloody and awful it is when someone tries to assassinate a politician), it's hard to actually stomach it.
What happened in PA is awful. What I hope SOME people will take away from it is that this is how things will be EVERYWHERE if we outlaw abortion.

[chuckro.livejournal.com]

Except that you know that as we speak, some conservative talking-head is claiming that all abortion is like this and that's why it should be illegal. It's all in the spin, and those assholes are all about the spin.

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

I worry that you are right. And I didn't think this story could get any more depressing...

[slackwench.livejournal.com]

You might be right. I'm not the originator of this thought, though. I've heard it said before that Roe v. Wade will never actually be (or maybe stay) overturned because the first time a teenage girl dies from a back-alley abortion will just provide such bad press.